Mitch lifted a hand to gingerly probe his temples, which were pounding so hard he thought he might be on the verge of having a stroke. The name in his mind, the one that seemed to belong to him, felt strange, alien, like a tag some zoo-keeper had arbitrarily hung around his neck. None of the avalanche of images that had flooded into him seemed any more real than a movie flashing on a screen.

“What did you do to me?”

“It’s more what I did through you,” Eve said. “I had to reach someone, and it meant breaking down a few doors along the way. I wouldn’t have done it if I’d had any other choice, believe me.”

Mitch was filled with so many questions, that picking one seemed to take a great effort. He finally settled on, “What the hell are we doing here?”

Eve tucked the filthy scrap of cloth into her jacket pocket, and rocked back on her heels. “I haven’t quite worked that out yet. What I do know is, that I was stupid enough to drag my cousin into all this, and if anything’s happened to him… He’s just a kid, and he’s out there somewhere. I don’t know if they’ve taken him, or what they might have done if they did. All I know is, I have to find him, and get him back home in one piece, or my mom and Francine are going to kill me. And I wouldn’t blame them. Oh, and by the way…” Her head lifted, and her body went very still. Then she slowly reached down, and picked up the long metal pipe. “I think there’s something else down here with us.”